Marayoor Dolmens

Marayoor Dolmens

Pristine, exotic, adventurous, diverse and beautiful – Marayoor is a land of waterfalls, rivers, rocky hills, bamboo forests, sandalwood trees, cave temples and paintings. Dolmens in Marayoor dates back to the stone age and in Malayalam the dolmens are called as Muniyaras or dwelling places of the Sadhus . Dolmens were created using slabs of rock, three for the sides and the fourth slab placed on top of these three as a roof. There are dolmens with 5 rock slabsas well where the 5th stone slab acts as front wall with an opening as entrance. Neelakurinji flowers that blossom only once in every twelve years is yet another spectacular native of Marayoor as well.

Instructions for Tourists – Marayoor Dolmens are accessible from road only at Kovilkadavu which is in the Marayoor Kanthalloor route at a distance of 48 kilometers from Munnar and at Pius Nagarwhich is at a distance of 50 kilometers from Munnar. Go for visiting Marayoor Dolmens only if you are interested in history as the climate of Marayoor is totally different from Munnar.

The name of this village is Marayoor and the remnants of the stone age civilization spread across the undulations of Marayoor’s terrain is called Dolmens. In the local language the dolmens are called ‘muniyara’ which means shelter of sadhus. Archiological studies suggests that these structures dates back to the stone age. In fact, there are two theories floating around about the origin of the ‘dolmens’. One theory says that these dolmens (muniyaras) are built by the sadhus/yogis hundreds of years ago as a shelter. The second theory believes that these were actually tombs which were constructed thousands of years ago in the BC. That said, there are no official studies conducted about the history and the characteristics of the dolmens by the central or state governments and there are no official papers published by any government body.

In the last decade the information about Marayoor dolmens where spread by various tour operators and as a result tourists who visited Munnar also went to Marayoor to have a glimpse of the remnants of these historical structures. Now the Dolmens of Marayoor is well known in the travel and tourism industry and each year a large number of tourists visit this place.